As an educator, strategist, and innovator, Megan Howard Nellen has been professionally engaged with schools and educational non-profits since her teenage years. A native Atlantan and graduate of University of Virginia, Megan volunteered, interned, and worked throughout her college career at a public middle school in Charlottesville. Through teaching roles at Atlanta Youth Academy and Trinity School in Atlanta, Megan found her leadership calling early and completed her M.A. in private school leadership through the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University. She has served as Lower School Principal at The Walker School in Marietta and also as Director of Teaching and Learning at Trinity School in Atlanta.
A thoughtful communicator and a skilled administrator, Megan has led her schools through strategic and long-term projects, innovative programmatic shifts, curricular upgrades, mission alignment, enrollment challenges, and cultural divides. She is a well-known speaker on topics such as futurewise leadership, diversity/inclusion, curriculum development, and portfolio-based formative assessment. She is passionate about curriculum design, especially in the area of ELA, and often provides extensive professional development for faculty and administrative teams both at schools in Atlanta and nationwide. Over the years, Megan has served on SAIS accreditation teams as a team member and chair, and she has helped lead accreditation processes internally as an employee and as an outside consultant as well. She has served as a trustee on several boards, most recently for The Schenck School (which serves students who are dyslexic) and St. Anne’s Day School (a North American Reggio Emilla Alliance (NAREA) school).
In her time away from schools and non-profits, Megan’s extensive travels have allowed her to find inspiration for her work as well as energy. She is an avid fly-fisherwoman, a tennis player, and has completed half-marathons in her home city of Atlanta and also in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. Megan volunteers her time with an inner-city afterschool program, PawKids, and with the Casting for Recovery organization which provides outdoor weekend retreats for women with breast cancer.